GB Deaf Swimming Club hopes national success raises profile of deaf swimming

The Chairperson of GB Deaf Swimming Club is hoping national recognition will give them a springboard to grow and develop, both domestically and on the international stage.

The volunteer run club inspire their members to feel a sense of belonging and equality amongst their peers and earlier this year lowered their membership requirements so more swimmers with hearing loss can join.

Their efforts were rewarded late last year when they were the recipients of an Inclusion Impact Award at the glittering awards ceremony in Birmingham.

The club campaign for hearing impaired swimmers to join their local clubs, whilst also providing a platform for them to represent GB on the world stage.

Chairperson Dave Carrington said: “GB Deaf Swimming Club is technically our members’ second club. We’re nationally based and that obviously gives us a big geographical area to cover and look after people, so ultimately swimmers will join their local clubs and take part in regular training sessions and meets.

“We then provide an additional club pathway where those who fulfil the criteria can have the S15 classification applied to their biog for competitions and hopefully provide a route to them being able to represent Great Britain.

Multiple ambitions

“At the moment we only get together as a club twice a year – we’d like to do more but obviously our members are spread right around the UK and there’s a cost implication.

“We have an annual championship that takes place around April time, but we make that into a full weekend, rather than just a one-day event, with a training session as well. We look to include siblings into the event also either with their own event or as part of a mixed relay.

“We then have another get-together in Autumn which is a full training weekend with a social event as well so the swimmers’ families can get involved. Again, we encourage siblings to train with us for this weekend to encourage a family environment.”

Membership of the club is steadily on the increase after it took a significant hit following the pandemic when aquatic sports were put on hold.

Carrington added: “We’ve got multiple ambitions. Our membership really dipped on the back of Covid; older members left because they could no longer be competitive and there was a really big gap to the younger members.

“We’ve built our membership back up now, but we’d like to keep growing and be available to more and more swimmers.

“Not many people know that we exist, and we rely on clubs around the country to initially welcome deaf swimmers as members and then hopefully they will direct them to us as well. 

“In a perfect world we would be part of something bigger, like the Para set-up, but there’s a lot of politics which is way beyond our control. This would allow Deaf Swimmers to have greater recognition and training benefits.

“Next year there’s the Deaflympics, which is going to be in Tokyo, but there’s no funding for our athletes so if they do get selected, they will have to self-fund their trips which can limit the number of swimmers who are able to go, which would be a real shame.”

‘To be recognised with an award is huge’

Carrington first became aware of GB Deaf Swimming Club when he was urged to reach out to them on behalf of his now 17-year-old son Nathan.

“Nathan is deaf and his first coach, when he was nine years old, knew of one of the former members of GB Deaf Swimming and she encouraged us to get in touch with them,” he explains.

“To be honest I’d never even heard of GB Deaf Swimming, which I believe is the same for many potential new members around the UK.

“We got in touch, my son joined as a member, which he still is, and eventually I got asked to be chairperson when the previous chair stood down.

“I look after the administration side of the club, alongside great support from the other committee members, and spend most of my time on the event weekends talking to the swimmers and families and trying to support them if they encounter any problems. It’s something I really enjoy and we’re looking to encourage more deaf swimmers to join their local clubs.

“I really do feel that swimming is a sport that a lot of deaf children don’t think is for them. It’s a hearing world and they can obviously have issues with communication, but it shouldn’t stop them from swimming.

“We’d like to get the word out there that swimming is a sport that young deaf athletes can do and be successful in.

“Winning the Swim England Inclusion Impact Award will hopefully help us get our name out there and more people will come forward to join us as a result of this.

“Just to be nominated and be part of the Swim England ceremony is a big thing for us, but for us to be recognised with an award is huge and we’ll be looking to use that success to promote the club.”

Mike Hawkes, Swim England’s head of diversity and inclusion, said: “The work of GB Deaf Swimming is fantastic and showcases what can be achieved by a team of passionate volunteers. 

“They are fully deserving of the Inclusion Impact Award, and I’ll look forward to seeing how the club and their swimmers progress in 2025, particularly those travelling to the Deaflympics!”

You can find out more about GB Deaf Swimming Club here and you can find all the winners of the 2024 Swim England National Awards on our roll of honour page.